


Cleaning For Christmas

by bwblack



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-06
Updated: 2011-01-06
Packaged: 2017-10-14 11:17:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/148705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bwblack/pseuds/bwblack
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Company means cleaning the kitchen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cleaning For Christmas

John wasn’t completely sure when he started reaching past the disembodied heads to grab a leftover curry. Once, when grabbing for a jar of garlic spiced pickles in the dark he happened upon a jar of preserved thumbs. He had never before thanked God for the smell of formaldehyde. Carcinogen, or not, suddenly it was his best friend.

Sherlock’s additions to the pantry had become so commonplace that he no longer argued, fretted, or fussed over them. He hardly noticed them at all. Mrs. Hudson, too, seemed to take it all in stride. John supposed that they had her long and occasionally happy marriage to a serial killer to thank for her slightly odd take on food safety. She had on more than one occasion shared plate of leftover Chinese food when they watched daytime tele. She always served their biscuits when she made the tea… even the time the package digestives was set atop the jar that held Sherlock’s appendix. She had simply asked if “Sherlock’s appendix” referred to its origin or its current ownership. John had to confess he did not know. She was not, however, completely fearless. She chided him severely for putting raw eggs in a Cesar salad dressing.

Harry , had never been for a meal at 221B. John suspected her bloodstream was pickled far more than the digits in the cupboard. But he didn’t think she’d find the humor in a drawer of ears and corn. He moves the bin closer to the refrigerator and begins cleaning. Honestly, some of the vegetables are in a sorrier state than some of the experiments. He thinks the green slime was once broccoli but it might be really off cauliflower… or a zucchini.

He’d need Sherlock to identify the yellow goop behind the orange juice. He isn’t sure he wants to know. All in all, he thinks, having to have a second bin for hazardous material on hand at all time is more disturbing than the actual contents of the bright orange bin. He tosses a head, the ears, the ball and socket joints, the venomous snake, the tadpoles (whatever they were about), and a tub of coagulated blood.

John had just stepped back to admire his work when Sherlock returned from the market. “Did you get everything?”

“Think so… it was a bit of a zoo.” He placed the bags on the counter. “

John began unpacking, comparing the items he stored in their now pristine kitchen to the list he had given his flatmate. “Cranberries?” He asked as he neared the bottom of the last bag. “You said you’d make the sauce…” John still had reservations about it. Sherlock’s cooking tended to be hit or miss. Either he came up with something brilliant or he got bored halfway through and started a kitchen fire.

“I made it last night. I put a little ginger in…”

John looked in the refrigerator… frowning and then remembered the tub of bright red jelly in the orange bin… “I need to run to the market.”


End file.
